Batman 335 – The Lazarus Affair concludes

Batman accepts Ra’s Al Ghul’s offer to join him, despite the protestations of Robin, Catwoman and King Faraday. He implies to Robin that his romance with Talia is the deciding factor, but of course he is only playing for time. Anyone could guess that.

And, indeed, it’s not long before Batman reveals his true loyalties, turning on Ra’s, who is not surprised at all. There is a bad continuity error in this story, with Ra’s shown to be primarily concerned about building a global corporate empire, rather than using his League of Assassins to rule from the shadows, and he even is said to have not been aware that Batman was Bruce Wayne before the events of this story. This not only contradicts every previous story he has been in, but means that Talia knew Batman was Bruce, even though her father didn’t. Absurd.

Talia gets shot by one of Al Ghul’s men, after she betrays her father to aid Batman, and gets put into the Lazarus Pit to restore her to life.

Then there is a last big fight between Batman and Ra’s Al Ghul. It’s been done before, and has looked much better.

Ra’s Al Ghul ends off supposedly dead (again), while Catwoman takes off, and Bruce and Dick reach a kind of detente over his dropping out of college.

Pretty much a disappointing story arc all around, sad to say.

Catwoman next appears in a couple of months in the pages of Brave and the Bold, and King Faraday pops up shortly after in the Dial H for Hero series in Adventure Comics.